I'm just going to say this, I seriously love the variety of people here from all these different life experiences and perspectives and I love that people feel safe and comfortable enough to actually talk about it here. And to be clear, that is something we all have built and are reinforcing together. Let's treasure it and never let that go.

@Medix2 How does asexuality correlate with romantic notions? Because I've been wondering whether or not I'm asexual but I've been disqualifying myself mainly because I would definitely like to have a significant other, it's just that I don't particularly feel inclined to have sex with anyone.

@Yuuki It's well... romanticism and sexuality are separate, one is roughly your want for romance (whatever the heck that means) and the other is roughly your want for sex (again, whatever the heck that means, it varies person-to-person)

@Carcer I'm not sure if MMPR is better. My issue with it is that it makes political parties an integral part of the electoral system. That and it's a bit racist to make the token Asian the Yellow Ranger.

I have another question. My friend that recently came out (right term?) as non-binary didn't explicitly tell me. They posted about it in another discord that I'm not in, but I'm friends with some of those people so heard about it second-hand.

So this seems like a silly question and I think I know the answer but should I just proactively use correct pronouns, or should I bring it up, or wait for them to bring it up? I don't want to offend them. I understand that sometimes coming out (again, term?) to different groups sometimes occurs as different times....

Also just a heads up, I realise things are friendly and everything, but if anybody is uncomfortable feel free to raise a concern either with flag or post and one of the mods or ROs can move the discussion (no judgement). (this is not me passively saying that I have a concern BTW, just throwing it out there)

they might be a bit upset that someone told you before they did or without their permission, but if you're supportive and willing to follow their lead on what they want to tell anyone else I think you're fine.

@doppelgreener I don't know, a team of teenagers with attitude is no basis for a system of government. Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some coin-based costuming device.

@G.Moylan well, trust me, the whole experience is going to be a lot more worrisome for them than you. You know now, however you now, the best thing you (and your wife) can do is ask them what they would like you to do

@doppelgreener For example, the setting of Power Rangers RPM takes place in a post-apocalyptic city where the last humans survive against a Skynet-esque machine onslaught. Engine Sentai Go-Onger, on the other hand, takes place in a multi-dimensional universe with sapient vehicles fighting against pollution.

@doppelgreener actually I think the crop used in your avatar might be from an earlier version of the image, the version on DA has different shine on the lips and has the edge of a smile that the avatar doesn't!

@doppelgreener Yes, oddly enough. One of the high ranks in our organization is Mike Chat, who was the original Red Ranger for the US series in the 80's. He also founded XMA, which we brought into our system along with him a while back.

(I have hydrocephalus and a VP shunt - scuba diving is not super safe for that, at least according to my neurologist. Apparently people do try it, but it's very risky. And considering the pressure changes of flying in a plane make me feel....awful, to put it mildly, I can't imagine that I'd find diving fun, if I could manage to even do it safely.)

"Snuba is form of surface-supplied diving that uses an underwater breathing system developed by Snuba International. [...] The swimmer uses swimfins, a diving mask, weights, and diving regulator as in scuba diving. Instead of coming from tanks strapped to the diver's back, air is supplied from long hoses connected to compressed air cylinders contained in a specially designed flotation device at the surface."

"Snuba often serves as a form of introductory diving, in the presence of a professionally trained guide, but requires no scuba certification."

@Medix2 That's insane. Longer tube means more effort to suck in air. Why not just fix a garden hose to the side of a boat? Because, you'll never get enough air, leading to hypoxia and really bad things (tm)

(I got a notification to move my car from an improper spot. And I was all "dude, I didn't park there. Wait, did I park there? Where did I park? Okay, I vaguely remember leaving my kids' school, and I totally entered my office, but why can't I remember anything inbetween?")

As usual, this room and its occupants strike me as a model for civility and kindness and honest engagement on the internet. I believe it's because you all are patient, you listen, you speak from experience and are open to challenging ideas. Thank you. It's a whole-room thing, and you-all do it so well that people coming new to the room learn the culture quickly and well and are demonstrably unafraid of asking questions or of challenging those norms. And when something untoward does happen, chatizens stay calm, they handle even obnoxious and aggressive trolls with grace and patience, and use…

Thanks, everyone. It's been a pretty challenging couple of months for some people (incl. me) who engage with the wider Network, and this one day has restored probably 90% of my good feelings that were lost recently.

I'm playing a homebrew variant on the D&D 3.5 Malconvoker (Complete Scoundrel). I'd like to upgrade it to 5.0 at some point. This Wizard specialization is what I came up with. Do you see any glaring holes, over- or underpowered compared to existing Wizard Arcane traditions?
Arcane Tradition: ...

Witch Bolt β: <description> Make a ranged spell attack against that creature. On a hit, the target takes 1d12 lightning damage, and while concentrating on this spell, you have advantage on your attacks against the target; the spell ends when you successfully hit the target with an attack. When the spell ends, deal 1d12 lightning damage to the target automatically. The spell also ends if the target is ever outside the spell's range or if it has total cover from you.

At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 2nd level or higher, the initial damage increases by 1d12 fo…

Another benefit to my Critical Success/Failure houserules being tied to having Advantage or Disadvantage: it means a single attack made with Advantage could (in some circumstances) be better than two attacks made normally.

@Medix2 Someone suggested it to me here and I've really enjoyed running games with it. Basically, Critical Success is A) on an Advantage Roll, B) you roll a natural 20, and C) the other die also rolls high enough to succeed on the roll. Critical Failure is the opposite, with Disadvantage, rolling a Natural 1 and the other roll low enough to fail the roll.

Background
In the Player's Handbook, it is specified that Advantage and Disadvange sources effectively "cancel out" regardless of how many there are of each:
If circumstances cause a roll to have both advantage and disadvantage, you are considered to have neither of them, and you roll one d2...

@G.Moylan Usually I have to determine on the spot, but I've been documenting results to build a full table. Pretty much every scenario involves me (secretly) rolling a d100 to figure out "how good/bad" the result will be, and then adjudicating based on the circumstances.

90% of them have been with attack rolls though (mostly our Barbarian Reckless-Attacking his way to guarantee advantage rolls) so it mostly just ends up being like "double the damage dice again" or "they now suffer a xd6 bleed effect each of their turns for awhile"

The first level feature of the Death Cleric, called Reaper, does the following:
At 1st level, you learn one necromancy cantrip of your choice from any spell list.
If the Death Cleric takes Chill Touch from the Sorcerer/Wizard/Warlock spell list, does Chill Touch become a Cleric cantrip that...